My Manifesto

I’m not a leader because of my position. I’m a leader because of who I am being when I’m in the world.

I have a vision.

My vision is a world, lit up with inspiration.

My mission on this planet is to create that inspiration in the world.

Imagine yourself drifting in a boat, out on a tranquil lake. The surface of the lake is clear and smooth. You reach out with one hand, and lazily drag your finger through the surface of the water. As you do, eddies of water swirl off from the main path your finger is on. Sometimes, these eddies stick with the main path of the finger for a while, before breaking off and assuming their own path. Sometimes, these eddies are large enough that they create their own eddies, rippling outwards.

I am that finger.

When the finger runs through the surface of the lake, it doesn’t try to find the eddies that will stick with it. It merely moves through the water.

It is simply being a finger. Undeniably, joyfully, expressively so.

The finger doesn’t concern itself with what the water wants to do. The finger only concerns itself with what it wants to do.

Let’s take that metaphor of the finger and broaden it.

Imagine a world of people. Every single one of them has a light bulb above their head. The brightness of that bulb represents the level of connection each person has to themselves. The brightness of the light is directly related to how connected they are to their passion, their heart, their joy, their spirit, etc.

Some of them have their lights turned on, shining brightly. Others have their lights shining dimly. Some people have had their lights shining brightly for a long time, others for a very short period of time. Some people have had their lights bright for a lot of time, but recently, their lights have started to dim. Some people have had their lights dim for a very long time.

None of this is right or wrong — it’s just what is.

Imagine seeing that scene at night, from above, like an eagle soaring over the field.

All you can see are the myriad of lights, some dim, some bright, moving about through a field of darkness. If you focus on an individual light, you can see it move through the pattern, bumping in to some lights, avoiding others, and the brightness of its bulb dimming or brightening from time to time.

Taken in as a whole, the entire scene looks a bit chaotic. But if you follow individual lights, you can make some sense of what is going on.

As you zoom out to take in the greater picture, you start to notice something.

There’s a bright light moving through that field. It shines especially bright. As you watch it, you notice a couple of things.

First, it’s seeking out other bright lights, spends some time in their presence, and then separates. As it separates, you notice that both it and the light it’s separating from are both shining a little brighter.

Second, you notice something happening around this bright light. As it moves through the sea of lights, the lights around it start to shine a little brighter. Some of those lights start to shine much brighter; some, only a little bit. Sometimes you notice that one of those lights that is now shining much brighter separates and starts to create the same effect with other lights.

Sometimes, the lights that this singular bright light comes into contact with follow along beside it for some time. Sometimes, it’s a lot of time. Other times, it’s a short amount of time. As they follow along, their light continually brightens and continues to swirl out brightness in eddies around them.

One day, that singular bright light will flicker, dim, and then burn out forever — but it’s impact can still be seen in the pattern of lights. The eddies continue to swirl, leaving more and more brightness in the world, long after it’s passed away.

We get two dates and a dash in this existence. The dates aren’t our choice, but everything in between them — everything inside that dash — is.

This is what I choose to use my life for. This is my commitment. This is my purpose on this planet.